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People being inconvenient in pushing for social change are insufficiently protected. The CIA spied on MLK Jr., discovered he was having affairs, and used that t

by lkbm 12y ago

People being inconvenient in pushing for social change are insufficiently protected. The CIA spied on MLK Jr., discovered he was having affairs, and used that to try to blackmail him into committing suicide. If he had, that would have been a major loss to society. And now we have reports of the NSA developing dossiers of minor crimes and non-crimes of inconvenient people's behaviors for future use in discrediting them. Is your suggestion that anyone who is (or may in the future) choose to be politically inconvenient should use strong encryption for everything even slightly unpopular they may do? We can't contain cryptography, but neither can we depend on it being universally and effectively applied.

tomjen3 12y ago
>discovered he was having affairs claimed he was having affairs. As you said he was politically inconvenient, why would I trust them?
- cryptophreak 12y ago
  You shouldn’t trust them, but it’s hardly an extraordinary claim. We can extrapolate from King’s heroic figure, charm, and constant traveling that he would been positively drowning in opportunity, to say nothing of the temptation that comes of being away from home for extended periods. If you care enough to explore the matter—although why you would consider it consequential I don’t know—you might start with Ralph David Abernathy, Sr., a close friend of King’s and a fellow civil rights leader, who confirms King’s alleged “weakness for women”.
- lkbm 12y ago
  Good point, but my understanding is that it was kind of an open secret in the civil rights community at the time. And I they include a tape containing proof, as I recall.
ripb 12y ago
>The CIA spied on MLK Jr., discovered he was having affairs, and used that to try to blackmail him into committing suicide. Have you got any more on this? Would be interested to read.
- jellicle 12y ago
  This story covers it. FBI, not CIA. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/magazine/what-an-uncensored-letter-to-mlk-reveals.html http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/magazine/what-an-uncensore...
  - lkbm 12y ago
    Oops, yeah: FBI. Sorry about that. To which one might be tempted to say "Well, sure, but J. Edger Hoover was totally out of control", but that's the thing: we let a totally out-of-control guy abuse a extremely powerful agency and do these things.
  - ripb 12y ago
    Wow, great read. Very frightening, especially when one considers what they could be at today.
    - WickyNilliams 12y ago
      Even more so when you consider the kind of dossier they had on him, they now have on everyone, by default
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- amagumori 12y ago
  and then they went ahead and assassinated him for real.

by lkbm 12y ago

tomjen3 12y ago

>discovered he was having affairs claimed he was having affairs. As you said he was politically inconvenient, why would I trust them?

cryptophreak 12y ago
You shouldn’t trust them, but it’s hardly an extraordinary claim. We can extrapolate from King’s heroic figure, charm, and constant traveling that he would been positively drowning in opportunity, to say nothing of the temptation that comes of being away from home for extended periods. If you care enough to explore the matter—although why you would consider it consequential I don’t know—you might start with Ralph David Abernathy, Sr., a close friend of King’s and a fellow civil rights leader, who confirms King’s alleged “weakness for women”.
lkbm 12y ago
Good point, but my understanding is that it was kind of an open secret in the civil rights community at the time. And I they include a tape containing proof, as I recall.

ripb 12y ago

>The CIA spied on MLK Jr., discovered he was having affairs, and used that to try to blackmail him into committing suicide. Have you got any more on this? Would be interested to read.

jellicle 12y ago
This story covers it. FBI, not CIA. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/magazine/what-an-uncensored-letter-to-mlk-reveals.html http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/magazine/what-an-uncensore...
- lkbm 12y ago
  Oops, yeah: FBI. Sorry about that. To which one might be tempted to say "Well, sure, but J. Edger Hoover was totally out of control", but that's the thing: we let a totally out-of-control guy abuse a extremely powerful agency and do these things.
- ripb 12y ago
  Wow, great read. Very frightening, especially when one considers what they could be at today.
  - WickyNilliams 12y ago
    Even more so when you consider the kind of dossier they had on him, they now have on everyone, by default
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
amagumori 12y ago
and then they went ahead and assassinated him for real.